Holt Teacher Dedicates Decades to Karate Study

Posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 10:05 pm

Lansing State Journal
August, 2005 – Living Section Cover

By Tricia Bobeda

The people who can break your bones with their bare hands are about peace and self-protection. They’re not gunning for a fight, but if you are, they have at least a half-dozen ways of taking you out.

Ruby Graham, for example, just 5 feet, 3 inches tall, could knock you out cold in less time than it takes to tie the knot in her stiff white karate robe.

“Since I learned karate, no one has ever bothered me,” said Graham, 47, a fifth-degree black belt. “It must have changed the way I carried myself.”

Her teacher (or “sensei”) is John Hutchcroft, a 55-year-old family lawyer. He operates one of the nation’s most successful karate schools – called a dojo – from the basement of his home in Holt.

“As an 18- and 19-year-old, you want to see how many people you can whup up on,” Hutchcroft said.

Thirty-seven years later, the seventh-degree black belt credits the cultural and mental aspects of Okinawan karate for his personal growth. Since 1750, only six others have ranked higher than Hutchcroft. Pictures of the six hang in a neat line of black wood frames in the dojo.

That’s one every 42 years: roughly speaking, in presidential terms, that’s George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan to whoever replaces the president who replaces George W. Bush.

Close encounters

Hutchcroft teaches Matsumura Seito Shorin-ryu, a traditional form of Okinawan karate.

His students learn to defend against common forms of aggression – straight punches, hooking punches, kicks, grabs, tackles and wrestling moves. A lack of focus can result in a bloody lip.

“You can’t pull back too much or you’ll have no idea how the technique feels,” he said.

Hutchcroft’s 17 students, ranging in age from 18 to 56, occasionally come home with a broken rib, displaced nose or finger, or deep bruises. John said learning the art in the spirit of friendship speeds up the healing.

“If (an injury) is done with love, it goes away right away. If it is done with negative energy, it hurts more and stays around a long time,” he said.

Most confrontations occur within 18 inches of an opponent, and the goal of the inside body fighting style is to end the struggle quickly. It’s about survival. It’s perfect for the petite Graham.

“I can’t outrun someone,” she said. “And I can’t be at the end of someone’s reach.”

Going up against some of Hutchcroft’s burly male students has convinced her that the style works – she can handle herself against the big guys. And she has nothing but praise for her teacher.

“He sees the good in each one of us and dwells on the positive,” Graham said.

She and her husband, Dan, have studied with Hutchcroft for almost five years. Inner competition Hutchcroft’s school is by invitation only.

“I look for a good heart,” Hutchcroft said. “Someone who has no preconceived idea of what they want karate to do for them.”

For him, karate is the lifetime study of the budo warrior and the Okinawan people. He believes that emphasizing the sport aspect of karate detracts from the study of budo, or discipline. Hutchcroft said he does not coach athletes.

“In sports, you compete against another person. Karate is a competition within yourself,” he said. He competed actively until 1985. He’s won the United States Karate-Do Kai Masters Tournament four times and the European nationals twice, plus about 200 other state and regional titles.

“That’s not really important to me,” he said. “This is not a competitive art.” Hutchcroft has four students in the hall of fame and has taught eight national champions. “You never stop learning. All of us have teachers or peers we look to and learn from,” he said.

Hutchcroft and his sensei, Phillip Koeppel, who is 67, studied with an 88-year-old master in Virginia last weekend. Koeppel is sixth in the lineage of the Okinawan karate – his photo is the last framed portrait on Hutchcroft’s dojo wall.

“I have a lot of people ask me how long the course is,” Hutchcroft said. “I ask, ‘How long do you have?’ It’s a lifetime if you do it right.”